Transplants

Tim Armstrong and myself (Rob Aston) formed TRANSPLANTS in December of 1999. I had just moved to Los Angeles and was hanging out with Tim when he played me this beat he had made on his Pro Tools System in his studio. It was incredible. Like nothing I had ever heard before. He asked if I could write lyrics to it, and without hesitation I said yes. Honestly, I was scared shitless because I had never been in a band before. Not to mention, I was dealing with Mr. Tim Armstrong from Rancid. Long story short, we recorded whenever we found time and gave it our all. But something was missing. Tim had played all the instruments by himself and the drums were samples and loops. We realized that we needed to find the best drummer we could. So we called up Travis Barker from Blink-182 and Boxcar Racer. We pitched him the idea and before even hearing the songs, he was on board. Travis came to the studio laid down his drum tracks in five hours and that was that. Now we have a record that we are proud of.

With topics that range from murder ("Quick Death"), the passing of loved ones ("Sad But True"), to failed friendships ("We Trusted You"), we wrote songs that I think everyone can identify with for the most part. There's even a party song on the album ("Tall Cans in the Air"). Don't jump to conclusions though. It's by no means a happy/fun song. You're more likely to make an enemy than a friend with this one. Anyways, everyone goes through shit in life, some more than others. Some people choose to ignore it and think it will disappear. Not gonna happen. At least not while you're listening to the TRANSPLANTS record.